SIR – Good old Eric Pickles! Yes, the very same man whose single-handed efforts made Bradford the only Tory-controlled inner-city council in the country at the height of Thatcherism. Eric is now Communities and Local Government Secretary in this coalition Government.

Recently, he has fielded two little policy gems which seem to be specially designed to reaffirm the two-tier society that his patron (MH Thatcher) first introduced in 1979. For a start, he is looking to dump the current obligation on housebuilders to provide a small percentage of ‘affordable homes’ in each new development, thereby making home ownership a possibility only the better-off can realistically pursue. Secondly, he is also very likely to succeed in doing what Stalin at the height of his powers could not do – and introduce all-day trading on Sundays.

Quite clearly he believes that the plebs are only good for spending money (preferably, money they do not have) to keep the wheels of grubby capitalism oiled.

Although time drifts by, some things and some people, never, ever, change Christopher Hindle, Osterley Grove, Bradford